Soffrito : a Delicious Ligurian Memoir

Lived by Lucio Galletto Written by David Dale

If you love Italy (and who doesn’t?) you’ll love this book – if you love Lucio’s (and surely only those poor souls who haven’t eaten there yet can say they don’t) – you’ll love it even more.

There’s a sense of voyeurism flicking through Soffritto, which resembles a travel diary recounting the incredibly personal journey that restaurateur Lucio Galletto took from 2002 to 2004, a physical and mental journey to revisit and reconnect with his homeland after 26 years in Australia. It’s dotted with old family photos as well as with Paul Green’s unstyled shots of the people and food that populated Lucio’s journey, looking like anyone’s holiday snaps, and while journalist David Dale sets scenes and guides the narrative, much of the text is spoken by the key players: Lucio and wife Sally, brother Aulo, cousin Mario and wife Wendy (Sally’s sister), other family members and the food producers and restaurateurs Lucio meets along the way.

The story jumps around in place and time, between Lucio’s Restaurant in Sydney and Ciccio’s, the family restaurant (run by cousin Mario) in Bocca di Magra, Lucio’s home town, and between 1938 when Mario’s parents (the founders of Ciccio’s) met at a local dance, through the years of the war and the resistenza (of which both Lucio’s and Mario’s father were members), and the early years of the 00’s as Lucio explores north western Italy meeting producers of olive oil, lardo, chestnut flour and balsamico.

While Soffritto is not a recipe book, there is a chapter containing some 50 recipes at the end. Like the rest of the book, this is a very personal collection of dishes representing the cooking of Lucio’s family and the cuisine of the ancient region of Lunigiana, the ‘region’ Lucio regards as his ancestral homeland, which covers parts of what is now Liguria, Piedmont, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany. An area known for some of Italy’s most popular foods (white truffles from Alba, prosciutto and parmesan from Parma…) and a delightfully quirky map, by Sydney artist Luke Sciberras, which appears on the cover (under the dust jacket) of Soffritto.

If you love Italy, Lucio’s or voyeurism, delve into Soffritto, you won’t be disappointed.

Allen and Unwin (Sydney, 2007) ISBN 978 1 74175 076 8